Friday, 19 August 2016

Flashback Friday - Camberley's Favourite Displays #1

This January saw the publication of the incredible Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, and as a reaction to the most important book of 2016, we created this window to shout about how fantastic this book truly is.

It is a book for everyone, a must read that gets into the nature of depression in a way that, for sufferers, is reassuringly familiar, and for loved ones of sufferers, overwhelmingly insightful.

To be told you're not alone in your struggle against the big black dog of depression, is some of the most important help you can get. Where depression makes you feel isolated and alone in a dark ocean, this book is the first signs of safety on the horizon. Matt Haig's personal experiences are a catalyst for change, to inspire hope and take up the fight rather than succumb to it's pressures.

Haig is extremely open and candid, bravely so, which is why I would recommend this book above all for the topic, and especially for men in particular. For men, stereotypically, emotions are silently pushed down inside, and this book is there to encourage open and frank discussion about what you hold inside. Suicide rates for men in the UK are three times that of women, and this book is here to challenge that. To form an outlet for understanding about mental health issues﻿ and encourage a future for struggling souls.

While all genders would benefit from this book, I would say the words Matt Haig writes may resonate most with the stoic silence of male sufferers of depression.